Soccer Bubble Shooter is a sports-themed, bubble-popping game. Against the backdrop of a nighttime soccer field in a stadium, the player shoots soccer ball projectiles at matching bubbles. On each level, their goal is to shoot and pop a rainbow-colored ball and earn a high enough score to rank within the top ten players on a leaderboard.
The player can only remove soccer balls in groups of three or more. They receive a cutout figure of a soccer player's head and shoulders, a large foam arrow, a soccer ball projectile, and a small preview of the next ball. They perform headshots, or headers, to shoot the balls. They don't need to remove every soccer ball from the field. They only need to remove enough of the balls to have a clear shot at the rainbow one.
Soccer Bubble Shooter makes the task difficult by sliding the soccer balls quickly down the screen. The player must make split-second decisions and use the preview often to prevent the balls from sliding too low. If any ball touches a red-and-white-striped horizontal bar that appears and flashes as a warning, they lose on that level. That said, the game provides several boosters to prevent losses, including bubble bombs that pop bubbles within a blast radius, green-and-yellow batteries that hit a row with electricity, and vases that match and pop any cluster of soccer ball bubbles.
The warning bar is a lot higher than the standard no-pass line seen in most bubble-popping games. It serves as not only a warning and an unwanted target but also a distraction. Along with a flashing exclamation mark warning bubble, it blocks the player's ability to see clearly when attempting to shoot.
